Andrew Charman Discovers How the British Touring Car Championship

www.racetechmag.com 52 TOURING CARS BTCC safety ACCESS ALL AREAS Andrew Charman discovers how the British Touring Car Championship is constantly seeking to improve its product, whether it’s making the racing safer or giving the fans a better show UNDAY July 31 2015 was ‘one of camera gantry, that seared itself on the SEAT OF THE ISSUE those days’ for the British Touring Car memories of both spectators and the live TV SChampionship. At the end of it, most audience. All were glad to see both Abbott Safety has always been a prime concern of involved in the UK’s biggest motorsport and the cameraman walk away, the latter the BTCC and all involved. Part of the wide series were simply glad to get away from having remarkably kept focused on the car appeal of the series is the body-rubbing the Norfolk circuit of Snetterton after as it flew towards him. nature of the racing, but this inevitably unprecedented mechanical carnage. In a strange way, however, when one results in clashes, causing much mechanical No one could remember the last time two looked under the surface a day which no- damage but thankfully seldom resulting in successive BTCC races had been brought to one wanted to repeat also served to illustrate injuries to drivers. Series officials, however, a stop by red flags, the first caused by an just how the BTCC is seeking to constantly can never be complacent. expensive multi-car crash on the fastest part upgrade its product across all areas. While Since 2015 the BTCC Next Generation of the circuit during race two. the accidents highlighted the reason for the Touring Car (NGTC) formula has also It was, however, the sight of Hunter latest evolution of the series’ safety package, been specified as the TCN-1 regulations of Abbott’s Chevrolet barrel-rolling along the clearing up the carnage also showed how the FIA, the world motorsport governing straight at the start of race three, finishing the BTCC is constantly trying to please its body’s major national Touring Car up atop a barrier having demolished a TV fanbase with more racing and fewer delays. formula and effectively the step below 52 www.racetechmag.com November 2016 Issue 192 Subscribe +44 (0) 208 446 2100 www.racetechmag.com TOURING CARS 53 the FIA’s lead series the World Touring Car originally developed in 2002 for the Dodge effectively make the seat out of concrete, Championship (WTCC). Viper race project by the late Dr John Melvin, so that it is absolutely rigid – it has to have As BTCC technical director Peter Riches a much-admired independent racing safety some energy absorbency, to help keep the explains, generally the NGTC way with consultant to the FIA, Indy Racing League driver safe.” regard to safety is to introduce any changes and NASCAR. Installing such seats into cars requires a year after they have been adopted by the As David Phillips from Racetech Europe modifications to the roll cage, principally WTCC. So before the 2016 season, BTCC explains, under 8862-2009 the seat is to provide a means of attaching the teams were informed that they would effectively integrated into the structure of rear mount, in addition to the usual need to upgrade their driver seats from the the car, particularly around the head and rails. In the case of the BTCC, the MSA’s previous 8858-1999 FIA safety standard to shoulder areas – the most critical – so that rollcage homologation document gained the new 8862-2009 version. impact loads are transferred to the chassis. a one-page addendum allowing for the The latter standard is mandated for most “Integrating the seat into the chassis at installation of an extra bar on which to FIA series at global level, including Le Mans, shoulder level produced much greater attach the seat back mount. GT3 and the World Rally Championship, strength and improvement to how the driver “The roll structure has to have some and was created following a number of was kept safe in a crash, rather than the seat way of holding the seat, but it is fairly fatalities resulting from 8858-1999 standard deforming and allowing movement in the simple,” Phillips says. “Some roll cage seats failing in crashes. David Black of upper part of the driver’s body,” Phillips says. manufacturers weld threaded bosses into New Zealand-based seat manufacturer The 8862-2009 seats also have to survive the roll cage, while some just use a clamp Racetech helped write the 8862 standard, a much more intensive testing procedure: to attach the mount to the cage, and this which particularly features an upper back “The seat has to be a lot stronger; the is also perfectly acceptable – there are a mount connecting the seat to the car’s roll destructive forces the test puts them through number of ways of doing it.” protection structure. This concept had been are a lot higher. But equally you can’t The arrival of the 8862-2009 standard OPPOSITE, ABOVE & BELOW Safety first: That Hunter Abbott emerged unscathed from his Chevrolet’s destruction of a camera tower at Snetterton owed a lot to the upgraded design of his race seat Photos: PSP Images Subscribe +44 (0) 208 446 2100 November 2016 Issue 192 www.racetechmag.com 53 www.racetechmag.com 54 TOURING CARS BTCC safety significantly increased Racetech’s involvement in the BTCC. In recent years the two major seat suppliers to the series have been Corbeau, which was able to produce its own 8862-2009 standard seat, and Telford-based Cobra, run by Mark Dunsford, which did not make a seat to the PSP Images new standard but did have contacts with many teams. With Cobra already enjoying a relationship with Racetech and the latter having sold its first 8862-2009 seat as long ago as 2008, a tie-up was the obvious move, and between them Cobra and Racetech now supply 23 of the 32 cars on the BTCC grid. Despite the apparent simplicity of the engineering involved to incorporate the new seats, the changes produced inevitable resistance from BTCC teams, principally on the grounds of cost and weight. The extra material in the seats, and the more extensive testing involved, made them significantly heavier, allied to a cost around ABOVE & BELOW Sitting comfortably: Two views of double the price of the previous 8858-1999 the 2016-spec seat supplied by Cobra/Racetech in seats – though the new seats do have a 10- the Speedworks Toyota Avensis of Tom Ingram and year life cycle compared to the five years of Gordon Shedden’s Dynamics Honda Civic their predecessors. Teams were able to choose between a cost-focus or weight-focus – the Racetech seat is made in four sizes (standard, wide for what Phillips describes as “Drivers with success ballast”, tall and tall & wide), and in two materials, carbon Kevlar or glassfibre composite. The former are twice the cost of the latter, but also half the weight, and not surprisingly most BTCC teams went the carbon Kevlar route. “Teams do complain about the cost of them, but in proportion to the cost of building and running a car it’s nothing,” says Phillips. The major difficulty Phillips experienced with BTCC teams in the winter 2015- 2016 period, however, was the timescale BELOW Straight into disaster: The accident on the straight at Snetterton caused major damage to several cars, but their drivers all walked away Ebrey/BTCC Andrew Charman Andrew ABOVE Written off: The unprecedented destruction of Daniel Welch’s Proton at Snetterton distorted every part of the car – except the seat 54 www.racetechmag.com November 2016 Issue 192 Subscribe +44 (0) 208 446 2100 www.racetechmag.com 56 TOURING CARS BTCC safety BELOW Head strong: In this view of the Cobra seat in the Speedworks Honda Civic of Matt Simpson the upper mount can just be seen Ebrey/BTCC provided in which to install the seats. “Our ability to perform and deliver was tested,” he admits. “Teams were reluctant to make the changes and we didn’t get the go-ahead until really late, just before the season started. “Each seat takes a week to make and they are manufactured in New Zealand, so they need shipping over. We had all-nighters helping teams install seats leading up to the first round of the series but we still managed to get everybody on the grid for the first race.” Initial reaction to the seats from drivers was somewhat negative, until they realised that the gains Ebrey/BTCC were not just in safety. “I spoke to (Honda’s) Matt Neal when he first had his seat, and he didn’t like it, ABOVE & BELOW All change: These views of the 2015-spec Corbeau seat in said it was uncomfortable,” recounts Phillips. “Just a Andrew Jordan’s Triple Eight Racing MG and the 2016 version in Kelvin Fletcher’s few weeks later I spoke to him again and he said he’d Powermaxed Chevrolet Cruze clearly show the enhanced side protection got comfortable in it and loved it. “(BMW driver) Rob Collard told us that the seat gave him such better feedback – he’s now up at the front of the grid contending for the championship and we think it’s because he can better feel what the car is doing.” The real value of the seats, however, was proved beyond doubt at Snetterton. Following his wild roll along the barrier Hunter Abbott was able to step out of his Chevrolet, which was fitted with a Corbeau seat to the 8862-2009 standard.

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